Review: Dutch label Illegal Alien is rightly celebrating its last 16 years in existence. It's doing so with a bumper collection of 44 exclusive tracks from 46 of its best artists across an eight-volume vinyl and digital series. The series not only traces the label's evolution, but that of techno itself and this sixth outing once again offers no-nonsense, heady and atmospheric techno that is both physical and inventive. Legendary names old and new like Fixon, The Advent, Cari Lekebusch & Orion and Mari Mattham & Jessse all contribute a range of essential dancefloor weapons.
Review: Khidi rolls out another anniversary EP here and it is another various artists affair that takes no prisoners. On their opener, Ancient Methods & OTHR bring some hellish metal and industrial overtones to the stomping, vicious 'Vast Vanishing' with its horror-core vocals. Roman & Boyd Chidt don't let up but offer a more linear and streamlined bit of stomping techno pressure. Silent Servant unleashes lashings of metallic synths over his signature tech sounds and then the floating loops of Unhuman & Vulkanski suspend you just above a rusty old factory floor.
Unknown Error - "The Yearning" (Super VIP mix) (9:24)
Review: It's been seven months now since the death of Rob Dickeson AKA Apex stunned the drum and bass community. "Echoes" is the last known track that Dickeson completed and is being released by Hospital Records in order to raise funds for Help Musicians UK's Music Minds Matter campaign. It's rather good, too, with poignant pianos, stirring strings and melancholic chords floating over a snappy, liquid funk beat. It's accompanied on the flipside by a fantastic, floor-friendly "Super VIP" mix of "Yearning", a soaring 2006 cut Dickeson produced alongside Jim Gash as Unknown Error. Top tracks and a worthy cause: this should be an essential purchase for D&B heads everywhere.
Review: Re:discovery has got a superbly illusive reissue eon its hands here with 1993's Clouds Over Europe EP from Aquarian Atmosphere, 39626 and Unit 2. It is a cosmic deep tendon voyage that tingles all of your sense as you ride on the gloriously serene synths of opener 'White Clouds'. It is one of the three tunes from Aquarian Atmosphere, the others being 'Floating On Boyne' a dreamy downtempo number that leaves you gazing at the stars and also 'Rhiannon', a thinking melodic masterpiece. 39626' 'Elixir Of Life' is an intense mix of synth modulations and minimal rhythm and Unit 21s' 'Clubtraxx' (Movement 1 - unreleased version) is pure Detroit techno goodness.
Mood II Swing - "Closer" (feat Carole Sylvan - King Street Moody club mix) (6:17)
Ananda Project - "Cascades Of Colour" (feat Gaelle - Wamdue Black extended mix) (6:46)
Review: Earlier this year, legendary NY house label King Street Sounds was acquired by Armada Music. The Dutch imprint plans to reissue many of the well-known - and lesser-celebrated - gems from the King Street vaults in the months and years ahead. To kick things off, they've delivered this vinyl sampler featuring some of the stable's most admired cuts of all time. So, we get Dennis Ferrer's iconic remix of Blaze and Barbara Tucker's gospel-powered soulful house anthem, 'Most Precious Love', the 'King Street Mix' of Jovonn's legendary deep, bumpin' tribute to New Jersey's Club Zanzibar, 'Back To Zanzibar', Mood II Swing's hot and heavy 'moody club mix' of their own Carole Sylvan collaboration 'Closer' and the all-time deep house classic that is the Wamdue Black extended rework of 'Cascades of Colour' by Ananda Project. Simply essential!
Review: The opening track on this release struts with a rolling bassline that could anchor any dancefloor. Layered atop are sharp, metallic percussive hits, interspersed with an eerie, almost celestial synth line that creeps into focus. The music has a cinematic quality; each moment feels deliberate, as though you're stepping into a tightly woven narrative. There's a tension at play here, too-the kind that builds anticipation without ever snapping into predictability. Instead of delivering straightforward house tropes, this EP leans into shadowy, off-kilter rhythms that refuse to settle, keeping you just slightly on edge. These tracks are about crafting mood and movement, creating space for subtle builds and unexpected breaks. The result feels more like a journey than a destination-a story told through restrained but impactful instrumentation.
Review: If you like your techno murky and subterranean then Node has got another doozy of a 12" for you. It is a six track various artists EP that comes on silver marbled vinyl and opens with the sleazy underworld sounds of 'Selva Oscura' from Conceptual. Orbe's 'Thorax' then goes down a deep, dark late night techno tunnel in mind melting fashion and Sciahri's deft loops on 'No Fear' leave you feeling utterly in the moment. The hypnosis continues on the flip with darker drum rumbles from Farceb, constant suspense from 'Dario Duegra' and magnificently weighty minimalism from Uun.
Review: Originally released back in 2011, this split LP from Unicorn Hard On and Container is back on a fresh pressing through the Hot Releases label overseen by Ryan Martin aka Secret Boyfriend. Valerie Martino's superbly-named Unicorn Hard On takes the A-side with the bubblegum outsider house of "Persian Cats" complemented by the jagged and angular beat assault of "Wildfire Girls" which also features her howling and heavily processed vocals. On the flip is fellow analogue noise merchant and all round badass Ren Schofield aka Container whose offering "Cauterize" is business as usual; pounding, rusty and abrasive techno that plays by its own rules and why this guy really does have his own sound.
Review: The unpronounceable Spclnch label drops more unmissable house heat with this new various artists' offering complete with cool artwork. DP-6 gets things underway with the brilliantly raw and undercooked house of 'Martian Sands' which is deep and dubby and packed with atmosphere. Eric Louis follows a similar path but with more light in his slick chords and Upwellings brings some tech edge and more tense, textual pads to his 'Steam Trail.' Anton Kubikov shuts down a heady, stylish backroom EP with the sub-aquatic dub techno goodness of 'Metal Cut'.
United Spiritual Singers - "Not A Minute Too Late" (Tom Noble mix) (6:50)
Review: Since 2020, Athens of the North's in-house band, East Coast Love Affair, has been serving up increasingly impressive slabs of retro-futurist brilliance. Previously, they've turned their hand to spacey jazz-funk/house fusion ('Don't Be Afraid'), deep vocal house ('Without You'), disco-funk ('Confrontations') and lovers rock (a superb cover of Eddie Kendricks' 'Date With The Rain'). This time round, they join forces with veteran gospel-soul choir United Spiritual Singers to deliver an incendiary disco-funk cover of the outfit's obscure (and recently reissued) 'A Minute Too Late'. The scorching, club-ready original mix comes accompanied by a superb Tom Noble rework that re-images the track as a Boyd Jarvis/Paul Simpson style proto-house heater full of reverb-laden vocals, echoing drum machine percussion and addictive synth-bass.
Review: Illegal Alien continues its 16th anniversary celebrations here with another volume, the fifth, of its limited edition Illegal Alien XVI series. Across all eight volumes once they are out there will be a total of 44 exclusive tracks and 46 great artists all tracing the evolution of techno over the last decade and a half. This edition is a superb one that fins plenty of innovation in techno, from the paranoid and warped synth energy of DJ Shufflemaster's 'Bizarre' to the tightly woven and intricate synth layers of Urban Groove's 'Aftertouch' via Unkle Fon's dry, stepped back techno funker 'Violet.'
Review: You can never have too many hand-stamped white label 12"s if you ask us. The latest crew to start up in simple but effective wax fashion is Lap with this hefty four-tracker. It finds Umwelt and Faerber take up one side each. The latest goes first with the muscular but funky and bass-heavy techno of 'Emotional Text Message Service' before 'Undo Can Do' gets more dark, militant and clipped in its loops. This one has frosted synths and drilling bass making sure you move. Umwelt then layers in more emotive, even trancey, synths over busted broken beats on 'Beyond Celestial Limits' while 'Memory Of Light' is another strobe-lit broken beat techno banger for the peak time.
Review: Dame Music is a sure shot for rough and ready techno with the Midwestern bite, a sense of adventure and enough punch to teach the pretenders a thing or two. Their Melting Point series has been an intermittent treat amongst their catalogue over the years, and Volume 4 does not disappoint. This time around label mainstay Bloody Mary is joined by the likes of Fear E, Dylab, Freddy Fresh and Umwelt for no less than five rip-roaring workouts geared towards the gnarlier kind of techno party.
Review: There is some serious electro talent on this new EP from Fanzine, starting with now US-based, UK-favourite Carl Finlow. His machines are in fine fettle once more as crisp, kicking electro rhythms are overlaid with bright, silvery, pixelated melodic fireworks on the sublime 'Organoiods'. Hoax Believers get more gritty with the sheet metal snares and in-your-face arps of 'Short Circuit' while Sound Synthesis offers something moody and unsettling on their 'Vertex43'. Univac will make your eyes water with the abrasive textures of 'H Beat.'
Review: The most sought-after release from the entire Sounds catalogue, Gemini and Unit T's 1995 release, 'Sideburns', finally gets a much-needed reissue. A1 track, 'Trip', is a prime example of deep house if there ever was one. An infectious, encircling melody meets the deep groove of the bassline to create a finished product that is in equal measure sun-soaked and cosmic. 'B Trip', the A2 track, is a gloriously shifted, off-beat reimagining of A1, pummeling percussion reverberates across the track, left alone to enjoy moments where everything is stripped back, before the body of the track returns. On the B-side, 'Mystery Tones' arrives with the kind of groove that instantly makes its way across dancefloors - a unifying track that feels precise in its simplicity, whilst still retaining exactly the right degree of looseness to get a crowd moving. This is a must-have record for any deep house aficionados, and you can now save yourself the hefty Discogs price tag!
B-STOCK: Slight surface marks on the record, product in perfect working order
Gemini - "A Trip" (5:11)
Gemini - "B Trip" (4:49)
Unit T - "Mystery Tones" (12:56)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface marks on the record, product in perfect working order***
The most sought-after release from the entire Sounds catalogue, Gemini and Unit T's 1995 release, 'Sideburns', finally gets a much-needed reissue. A1 track, 'Trip', is a prime example of deep house if there ever was one. An infectious, encircling melody meets the deep groove of the bassline to create a finished product that is in equal measure sun-soaked and cosmic. 'B Trip', the A2 track, is a gloriously shifted, off-beat reimagining of A1, pummeling percussion reverberates across the track, left alone to enjoy moments where everything is stripped back, before the body of the track returns. On the B-side, 'Mystery Tones' arrives with the kind of groove that instantly makes its way across dancefloors - a unifying track that feels precise in its simplicity, whilst still retaining exactly the right degree of looseness to get a crowd moving. This is a must-have record for any deep house aficionados, and you can now save yourself the hefty Discogs price tag!
Review: Quirky and lo-fi minimal moods from the Pirka label, successfully blending four tracks from various artists in their repertoire as far-flung as speed garage, deep house, and broken beat. Glitchingly restless come tracks like Hendriks Toth's 'Pescado Y Limon' and Jorge Savoretti & Lulla's 'Zoot', both of which we consider to be highlights thanks to their impressively slick and agile production quality and swing. The tunes by Guy From Downstairs and Unknown Collective are no less beguiling, spanning crossrhythmic pulses to speedy hat-clap hypnotizers.
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